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Bob Barr and the failure of the Reform Caucus

Bob Barr never fully repudiated many of the awful positions he took in the past. He certainly sounded better than McCain or Obama on the campaign trail, but he always left much to be desired. He talked about smaller government, but most of the things he said could have been said by any establishment Republican candidate. Ronald Reagan probably sounded more radical in his time than Bob Barr has this past year. Why would people get excited about a third-party candidate, who has no shot of winning, when his ideas aren’t even that radical or exciting?

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The ironic thing is that this could have truly been a breakout year for the Libertarian Party. I don’t want to put words into Ron Paul’s mouth, but I have a feeling that if Mary Ruwart had been the nominee, then she would have received an endorsement from Ron Paul. Either way though, she would have been a perfect place to go for a large number of the approximately 1.2 million people that voted for Ron Paul in the primaries. She would have been a rallying point for the liberty movement, much as Ron Paul was in the primaries. But regardless of the number of supporters and voters she would have received, she would have continued to educate people and had people excited about freedom, just as Ron Paul did in his campaign.

The Reform Caucus (aka Retard, or Deform, Caucus) implanted Barr in the most corrupt manner. They got what they deserved.

Now that their idiotic theory of putting a non-libertarian on the ticket has proved to be a huge failure, perhaps they will go crawling back to the Repuglicrats from where they came.

2 Responses

But who else, exactly, was a good candidate for the Libertarian Party this year out of the field who entered?

Mary Ruwart had no clout whatsoever, and her writings suggesting lenience toward child pornography (which would have precluded Paul’s endorsement) would have made her and the LP a laughing stock.

Wayne Allyn Root also had no clout, neoconservative foreign policy views, and his annoying personality would have turned off voters.

Mike Gravel was a decidedly non-libertarian opportunist who already had the “crank” label associated with him. He had a fundraising base that was nowhere near Ron Paul’s, and he would have been ill-suited to carry forward the momentum established by Paul’s campaign. Plus, he ridiculously claimed that he’s “more libertarian than Ron Paul” in a Reason interview.

Jingozian is the only truly serious and legitimate candidate out of the rest of them who would have done a good job of representing the Party. But he’s a no-name. I’d like to see more from him in the future.

There’s nothing wrong with the Reform Caucus. They’re exactly the right group to be leading the Party forward. They put forth the wrong candidate and campaign, but the fact is that they are right on a fundamental point: the Party has to take a more moderate, gradualist approach if it wants to obtain relevance and influence.

The people who need to be put forth as the leaders of the Party and as prominent candidates in the future are folks like Mike Munger, who got the LP on the ballot automatically in NC this year with his intelligent, focused, and serious campaign for Governor. If we had a Mike Munger running for President and Vice President, 50 Mike Mungers running for U.S. Senate, 50 Mike Mungers running for Governor, 435 Mike Mungers running for U.S. House, and Mike Mungers running for every state and local government position, the Party would be in tremendous shape.

If the Party can somehow persuade Gary Johnson to join it and begin running for national office, that would be a major coup.

“Mary Ruwart had no clout whatsoever, and her writings suggesting lenience toward child pornography (which would have precluded Paul’s endorsement) would have made her and the LP a laughing stock’

Right-wing nonsense.

Ruwart’s writings were part of the LP educational program and her ‘controversial’ statements were lefted directly from official materials before the child pornography wave hit.

In many countries such as Russia child pornography remains legal for a very good reason: it’s an expropriation of the child’s property that leads to the prosecution of children for possession, as happens in Florida, where most actions involve the arrest or detention of teenagers for possesing photographs of their activities according to people with whom I’ve spoken. The only beneficiaries are the same as in the drug war; organized crime, corrupt ministers and officials.

The matter is adequately handled by emancipation procedures as exist in several states, or abuse of children rules.